The Caravan Road (9 page)

“This afternoon, we will go to the gates of the palace and enter it, so that we can begin to restore the rulership of this city to the proper principles that the people her
e
deserve,” Alec spoke loudly, knowing that his words were a political speech to the population of the city at large, words that would be repeated widely.  He had hoped to carry out his efforts in a quieter manner, but the second battle in the square, with the multiple supporters and participants
,
had already put an end to that plan.

“Take me with you!” a voice called from the crowd.

Alec looked to his right, where the voice came from, and groaned in trepidation.  It was the redheaded girl, the one who had lost her father
, already returning to the square
.  She would claim the right of retribution, and the crowd would support her, and Alec would have
the complication of
another person to watch out for while trying to achieve his conquest of the city as bloodlessly as possible.

“You come talk to me as we walk,” he replied, letting her approach him.  He needed to find a way to send her home, and he needed to start addressing other actions.  He planned to try to do both simultaneously.  Alec directed his small band of soldiers to await him at the entrance to the market, then began to walk towards the captive Ajax, a solitary figure who was given a wide berth by everyone else who crossed the market square.

“I am going to take you back to the palace,” Alec told the still defiant man.  “Do you plan to go as my ally or my opponent?”

“I am loyal to the Duke, not to some strange pretender.  You might as well kill me now, because I will fight you the moment you release me from this,” he silently nodded his head around him at the unseen flows of air that held him in place.

Carla stood silently behind Alec, listening.

“So you’ve taken a local girl to be your plaything have you?” the Ajax asked, looking at her.  “I’ll remember her after you are dead.”

“I’m following him of my own desire, because I want justice against the soldiers who killed my father,” the girl said fiercely.

“She is what she said,” Alec also answered.  “She wants vengeance, and that’s the only reason she’s following me.  Now, let’s go to the palace,” he directed, and he deftly altered the air currents so that the Ajax rose inches off the ground, and then was smoothly blown forward at a walking pace.  Alec looked at the incredulous expression on the man’s face, and gave a satisfied smile, then walked towards his waiting army, a couple of score in number, which waited impatiently.

“In two hours’ time, I want you to leave this place and go to the eastern gate of the palace.   If I’ve done my part, the gates should open and you will be able to enter and we’ll proceed with plans from there,” he instructed.  “Wait patiently and don’t go early,” he warned, then began to walk away, heading towards another palace gate with his own plans for entering the fortress.

“Now,” he turned to the girl beside him.  “I want you to go home and comfort your mother, and help her cope with the loss of your father.”

“I have already seen my mother, and she told me to go take vengeance on dad’s killer.  She gave me this,” the girl pulled a long-bladed knife from the waistband of her dress.

“Carla,” Alec stopped walking and turned to the girl, grabbing both her shoulders firmly in his grasp.  Just as he prepared to tell her of the futility of seeking solace in revenge, and to warn her that she would find no comfort in killing someone else, there flashed in his mind the memory of the day many centuries prior, when he had confronted Elgin, the son of the Duke of Goldenfields, and had slain Elgin in revenge for the young nobleman’s attacks on Noranda and the Duke. 

He would be a hypocrite to tell her not to pursue the same path he had pursued, he realized.  She was staring at him, her eyes large and round, reacting with surprise to the emotions that crossed his face graphically as his memories betrayed him.  “What is it, my Duke?” she asked.

“Don’t kill anyone without my permission,” he responded lamely.  “Look at him,” Alec released the girl and gestured towards the captive Ajax that floated nearby.  “I would rather spare his life
than kill him,
and hope for some future good.  I don’t want any more blood on my hands than necessary in this quest.”

“I will do as you command, for now,” the girl casually agreed, tucking the knife back in her waist band, satisfied that she was going to be able to follow Alec and achieve her vengeance at a later time.

She suddenly felt multiple, small streams of air jetting against her body in numerous locations, pressing her dress flat against her flesh, binding her arms immovably against her sides, and lifting her feet off the ground.  She looked in horror at Alec.  “What is happening?  What have I done?” she cried, realizing that she was caught in the same cage that held Alec’s other prisoner.

He reached casually over and removed the knife from her waist band, then released her abruptly, so that her feet landed hard on the ground and her knees gave way slightly.  She felt the landing jar up her backbone as her hair flounced on her shoulders.

Alec held the knife up before her.  “You will obey me.  Do you pledge to follow my direction?” he spoke intently.

Carla felt her soul being constrained.  “I will follow your orders faithfully,” she said in a choking voice.

Alec took her knife and held it for her to see, then slit it across his thumb, leaving a red sheen of his blood on the edge of the blade.

“Hold out your hand,” Alec ordered.  He grabbed her trembling hand in his, then deliberately ran the blade of her knife across her thumb, opening a slice than bled as well, coating his bloody layer on the blade with one of her blood.

“Now we are bonded, faithful to each other.  You will obey me,” Alec told her, then ran his thumb along the knife again, and as the edge touched his thumb, the red stain turned to a golden sheen on the knife.  His hand that held hers rigidly open for the ceremony flipped over to the top of her open palm, momentarily blocking her view, and when he took it away, the cut on her thumb was healed, and the pain was gone.

“Here, take this,” he told her, holding the knife out, and as she took it she saw that his thumb was healed as well.

“These things you’re doing; the powers you have.  You truly are the Duke Alec, aren’t you?” Alec almost jumped as a nearby voice spoke, interrupting his focus on the ceremony he had just performed with the young girl.  He didn’t know why he had felt compelled to create the bond between the two of them; he had intended only to prevent her from getting herself killed by trying to get in a knife fight.  He looked around, and realized that it was his captive Ajax speaking.

“You’re the one who defeated Hellmann in the mountains, the one who fought the demons in Vincennes,” the Ajax added.

“I did those things a long time ago,” Alec confirmed.

“You can release me; I won’t fight against you any longer,” the Ajax told him.  “You may rightfully claim the seat in the ducal palace.  I will not fight for you, since I came to the city on behalf of the new duke, but I will not fight against you.  You have my word that if you release me, I will return to Valer and tell the story that you are alive and are retaking Valeriane as your own.”

Alec gently lowered the man so that his feet were on the ground, then released the airtight bonds
, trusting in the honor of the Ajax
.  The man immediately went to one knee, then stood.  Alec released his hold on his ingenaire energies as the man silently turned and walked away, breaking through the ring of observers who had formed around the dramatic tableau in the street, then he disappeared from sight.

Alec sagged with weariness, feeling the effects of having strained himself to use so much ingenaire energy in so many complex fashions.  What would Rubicon tell him now, Alec wondered, remembering the master Warrior he had been apprenticed to so long ago in Oyster Bay.

“Are you alright, my lord?” Carla asked him with concern.

“I’m tired, Carla.  But we’ve got to get some things done in a hurry, so we need to move forward,” he told her as he looked around as the people watching them.  “Let’s move on.”

As they walked the observers gave them a murmuring cheer, then dispatched, except for a few, mostly small boys, who followed them in hopes of seeing some next act of great deeds.

“When we turn this next corner, you will need to walk very close to me,” Alec instructed his follower.

Without knowing why, the girl crowded up against him as commanded, and Alec used his Light powers to bend an invisibility space around the two of them so that they disappeared from sight.  He heard a few gasps from behind them, but kept walking resolutely.  “Right now, we are invisible,” Alec whispered to Carla.  “When we get to the small gate, we are going to sneak into the palace invisibly.  Once we are in there, we are going to go to the dungeon and set the steward free,” he said.

“What will we do then?” the girl asked.

“Then we need to get to the gate and let the rest of our supporters into the palace,” Alec answered, as he stopped to look at the southern gate in the palace walls, a less active entry than the other, more prominent gates to the palace grounds.  There were sharp-eyed guards on either side of the open gate, a gate too narrow for a wagon to enter, meaning that Alec and Carla would have to walk within very few feet of the guards as they entered, vulnerable to being given away by a sneeze or cough or even a scuffed footstep.

Alec warned Carla of the need for absolute silence and they slowly crept towards and through the gate, ignoring the anxiety that he felt as the close-by guards appeared to stare directly at them.  Several steps inside the palace walls Alec reached out and took Carla’s shoulder, then led her into a doorway and through a deserted hallway.  “We’ll cross the garden and enter another building, then go down into the dungeon cells below there,” he whispered softly, then led her along the way, pausing often in the garden as strolling members of the court intersected their path.

Around one corner they turned upon a couple who were passionately embracing, and Carla mumbled “Excuse me,” instantly, without thinking, making the man instantly raise his head and look around, while his lady companion clutched her blouse tightly shut.

“Some one’s there,” the girl whispered pressing herself up off the ground.

Alec slowly edged to the side of the walk, pulling Carla with him.

“Who’s there?  Who’s spying?” the frustrated lover asked.  He pulled his sword from its scabbard, and began to poke it into the bushes nearby.  “We heard you; we know you’re there,” the man spoke in a low voice as he approached the invisible invaders’ location.  His sword was swinging viciously across the walkway, and Alec saw an inevitable conflict coming if the situation didn’t change.  He closed his eyes, and called upon the Spirit energy to provide its protective insulation, then called upon the Air ingenaire energies, and blew a sharp breeze into the bushes on the other side of the embarrassed girl, making the leaves rustle violently and causing the girl to shriek, then flee in fear and embarrassment.

“Wait!” the man replied.  He stood, torn by his
desire for revenge against
some
nearby
intruder versus his need to follow and calm his almost-lover.  With an angry thrust he slammed his sword back in his scabbard, and sprinted away from Alec and Carla.

With a sigh, Alec released all his powers, feeling a growing exhaustion from such prolonged and heavy energy use, and concerned about the needs that were still to come.  He stepped over to a nearby bench and sat down heavily.  “Did you do that?  Did you make the bushes shake?” Carla asked breathlessly, sitting down beside him, one leg folded beneath herself as the other foot remained on the walkway.  “I’m sorry I spoke; they surprised me – they embarrassed me!” she added immediately.

“Don’t worry, we escaped this time.  Just try not to let it happen again,” Alec answered calmly.

“Why aren’t we invisible?” the girl asked.

“Because I’m growing worn out.  It takes a great deal of energy to do more than one thing at a time, like be invisible and rustle the bushes,” Alec answered, “and I haven’t tried to use my powers so much in a long, long time.”

“But you’re doing everything so perfectly!” Carla enthusiastically responded.

“Shh,” Alec placed a finger against her lips, then stood up.  “We’ll see if we can get across the garden as a simple, visible couple, and then go on with the plan,” he told her.  He took her arm and placed her hand on his arm, then appeared to escort her with genteel courtesy across the rest of the garden, bowing gracefully at those others whose paths they crossed.  When they reached the edge of the garden Alec opened the door and followed Carla in, then shut the door behind them, and swung the bar down to lock it closed.

“When we get
to
the prison cells, I want you to stay out of the way: out of harm’s way and out of my way.  I want to fight any battles that are necessary, and I want to end them quickly,” he told her.  “Do you understand, and will you obey?”

Their eyes locked, and Carla felt compelled to reply.  “I will obey,” she said meekly.

They followed the path Alec remembered, down a hall and through an empty room, where he resumed the protection of invisibility for them, before he slowly opened a heavy wooden door that was solidly reinforced with iron fittings around the hinges and at all the joints and corners.  Down several steps in an unlit stair well they came to a second imposing door.